British Sprint and middle closing date

[rocky]

There's no compulsion in the Competition Rules to make the heat allocation secret. Perhaps there should be? Discuss ...

It has been every time I've run*. Why change?
Though I have a feeling it was once published by mistake and then re-allocated?Scarborough maybe?

[SachaF]

'4.2.3 Each heat shall, as far as possible, be equal in the number and quality of the runners. The Rankings scheme shall be used to achieve this.'

Neil,
W35 now equal in numbers but I'd be interested to see what order you Rank the W35's in as I make it 3 of the top 5 in the C heat...

[NeilC]

By ranking position at the closing date. Accepting though that ranking position is not a truely accurate measure of sprint ability and that relatively small differences in ranking position are unlikely to represent significant differences in sprint ability.

[Jon X]

Neil, all well dealt with so far (and very patient with it) - hope you can keep it up for another five days!

[awk]

... all but the Elite getting only 2 finals.

Surely the one place where the new format really falls apart is (for the entries this year) M/W10, where there's only an A final. So these competitors have to complete their heat successfully to be competitive in the final, but the time is irrelevant. In fact, there might actually be an advantage in being slow, because then they would be able to chase the slower competitors starting after them

Yes, it does fall apart there, but by having such large minor finals (compared with likely entries), it means that there is no incentive for anybody without a realistic shout of the A final. Whereas, under the old system, with so many competing relative to the places available, there was real interest in the heats for everybody.
Equally, the competition was a lot tighter in both finals and heats, by the very nature of the competition.
The primary aims for messing around with the format for this competition were (a) to make it more marketable for sponsors and the like and (b) to generate more interest in the elite (my understanding is that both the SCG and the JCG were against this, only the chair of the ECG supporting). It remains to be seen whether either works out. Certainly, given the level of interest in the elite at previous races, I can't see it generating any more, and we await sponsorship.

[EddieH]

AWK I cannot believe taht ANYONE doesn't know your views by now. Personally I disagree but the proof will be in the eating.

I can't quite get my head round why competing against your age group in a lengthy league is so exciting for you, whilst the idea of doing it for a British title is so horrendous

[Mrs H]

ha ha ha thanks Eddie I am so excited about this weekend that even Awk can't pour cold water on it (I was going to say something somewhat coarser but I've already accused him of doing that recently - better not give him a complex)

[PhilJ]

Apologies for being slow, but what does the table at the bottom of page 2 in the Final Details relate to? Is it supposed to be the number of qualifiers for the A Sprint Finals?

[LostAgain]

Apologies for being slow, but what does the table at the bottom of page 2 in the Final Details relate to? Is it supposed to be the number of qualifiers for the A Sprint Finals?

It is the number of qualifiers for the A final times the number heats. Eg M45 has 6 oing through from each heat and there are 3 heats therefore there will be 18 in the A final. The rest will be in the B final.

[epocian]

Apologies for being slow, but what does the table at the bottom of page 2 in the Final Details relate to? Is it supposed to be the number of qualifiers for the A Sprint Finals?

It is the number of qualifiers for the A final times the number heats. Eg M45 has 6 oing through from each heat and there are 3 heats therefore there will be 18 in the A final. The rest will be in the B final.

If that's the case why in W70 are there 3 runners in Heat A, 4 runners in Heat B and only 2 in Heat C - with 6 in the final Heat C don't need to race, they can jog round and are assured of places in the final.

[NeilC]

When entries closed there were ten entrants which were distributed 4:3:3. One entrant then dropped out leaving 4:3:2. We are looking to redistribute this class. There comes a point though where cancellations/DNS are just part of the mix - some will benefit more than others.

[Urban]

Looking forward to the weekend immensely.
For the big championships I prefer focussing on competing against my age peers, I'm racing everyone else most other weeks.

[awk]

AWK I cannot believe taht ANYONE doesn't know your views by now. Personally I disagree but the proof will be in the eating.

I wouldn't have said anything - but DJM's post was too provoking! Anyway, it's not just me, as has been confirmed several times in the past few days.

Personally, like you and Mrs H, I'm really looking forward to the weekend, and am sure it will be a great event. (I wouldn't be travelling that far if I though otherwise, would I?!).

I can't quite get my head round why competing against your age group in a lengthy league is so exciting for you, whilst the idea of doing it for a British title is so horrendous

So, you obviously don't actually know my views.
I'm not against competing in my age group - far from it, I thoroughly enjoy it, as you have observed from the UK Masters. What I'm objecting to is the merging of the two championships, with the subsequent loss of one of the most competitive exciting races of the year. But then, unlike those obsessed with 'fairness', I was quite prepared for the age class champion to be the one finishing highest in an open event. Equally, given the paucity of sprint races in this country, I was quite happy with the alternative of seeing two separate events for open and age class based races.

BTW, why no M18 or M20 champions, given all other age classes are covered?

[PG]

Looking at the old Worth Lodge map downloaded from the event website, I see in very small writing that "Power lines have been omitted for map clarity".

Can anyone tell us whether this is still the case?

[NeilC]

Yes. The big pylons though are mapped and since the power lines run up a wide ride their omission will not (or at least should not) affect navigation.